d.r. green

At last. New Mexico football will get the attention many New Mexicans think it deserves, by playing a high caliber Notre Dame team in Notre Dame Stadium in 2019. Of course, most of those cheering Lobo fans might be torn, between rooting for a UNM team that won’t have a chance, and for a Fighting Irish squad which will likely blow UNM out. Hopefully UNM will put the $1.1 million it receives as a guaranteed payment for the game to good use, and Bob Davie won’t be coaching New Mexico in 2019, and offer his excuses for his team’s poor performance,

Chris

they actually play Georgia and year over year have an average tougher schedule then most SEC teams. I respect the SEC its a tough conference and most of their fans know football.
NCAA College Football Strength of Schedule Rankings & Ratings

JM

New Mexico is going to go in there and win. These kids have started to turn this program around and many of them are from New Mexico a state that doesn’t turn out many D1 players. This win is going to change that. To steal a quote from Holtz, ” they put their pants on same way we do.”

Freddie

San Diego State is the last FBS program still working to complete their 2015 schedule. Why are the Aztecs having such an issue? Multiple FCS programs would love a guarantee game and are open to playing two or three FBS programs in a season.

Or is San Diego State having funding issues and cannot afford to pay for a guarantee game?

Evan

Why isn’t the final week: Fres St @ SJSU, CSU@ Wyo, AF @ UNM, Nev @ SDSU, BSU@ UNLV. They should have BSU and Nevada play every year because that’s a longtime rivalry, probably bigger for Nevada than UNLV.

Dave

The MWC has 22 games scheduled against Power 5 teams in 2015. In 2013 they were 1-20; last year they picked up 3 wins beating Colorado, Wake Forest and Washington State. Can they win 5 this season-or would that be asking too much?

Evan

@dbrunstheworld

The MWC let BYU get USU for the final week 2015 and 2016 in exchange for BYU letting USU out of a 2 for 1 deal. No hassle for the MWC, Hawaii appears to have been granted the right to schedule non-conference the closing week.

Dave

Rivalries are good, AF vs CSU is Good but the big Rivalries with AF are non conference, Navy & Army. As a person setting in the stadium, a Sat game is my biggest desire & need. Friday & Thursday games are 90% of time unable to attend. I know TV & MWConf wants the money but empty stands are not good. I can’t even give away my Thur games.

Stuart

I like SJSU’s schedule. We have rivals Fresno State, San Diego State at home, plus BYU and Boise State. These will really help attendance.

But this has problems. SJSU should host SDSU one year, Fresno State the next year to help build consistency in attendance and interest. Also Fresno State and SJSU should be playing the last week or the next to last week every year. Same for Colorado State-Wyoming.

Building rivalries is key. So they should set up last weekend rivalries. They also should allow schools to have one permanent cross rival. Nevada-Boise State is an obvious one.

It would have been better is the MWC divided by “old” and “new” (WAC), as that would have preserved rivalries.

San Jose State is going to struggle this year on run defense again..our defensive lineman are once again in the 260-270 range and that ain’t going to get it done. Just hope there is enough balance on offense to keep the defense off the field.

Bill

How come no quality non league games? Howard and New Mexico-how weak can you schedule? Washington-they’ve been a non factor since Don James quit 21 years ago. Add in Indiana and Minnesota and there are 4 cream puffs on the schedule. What about a decent Big12, SEC or ACC team to generate some fan interest?

Rich

Flying across the country to play UW is a good challenge. Your comment that the huskies have not been a factor since Don James is not accurate , they finish 2000 as the number 3 team in the nation and were the only team to beat Miami that year. Rutgers put together a good schedule ; a power five game on the road, a mid major, and a fcs plus nine conference games.
It’s time all the conferences went to a nine game schedule.

Washington and Rutgers are pretty comparable; mid-level Power 5 teams that contend for bowls. Teams like Rutgers should not be scheduling for the college football playoff. They should schedule to entertain their fans and get enough wins to go bowling. This schedule does just that with very winnable non-conference games and a road trip against a P5 school.

Jeff

Bill, you’re almost on target, but maybe a little off as well. I look at the schedule Rutgers has put forth and see a good schedule. They have nine conference games, they play a Power-5 conference team on the road, and have two home games with only one being a FCS. It’s a good model of how maybe the SEC should look at scheduling.opposed to their weak non-conference agenda and how they fix & move their conference schedule around with match-ups and open dates prior to any “big” opponent game. To say a “Miinesota” or “Indiana” are cream puffs in 2016 shows a sign of nonsense on your part, you could have thrown in a “Michigan” and “Illinois” for that matter.

Frank

Rutgers was scheduled to open the season at the Rose Bowl with UCLA. The game was moved to 2020 at the request of UCLA so that they could play a bationally televised game. Washington is a good subsitute and will be a real challenge.

Bill

One championship season in the last 22 years does not make Washington anything more than a mid level P5 team. Indiana is a cream puff and has done nothing since a 1967 Rose Bowl visit. Illinois is consistently weak, Minnesota is 52 years removed from a Rose Bowl visit. Purdue is a regular loser to everybody including MAC opponents. Michigan is starting to build a resume of ineptitude.

I guess Washington is as good as you can do since Rutgers couldn’t even beat Fresno St. during their recent series. Rutgers is the only P5 non league opponent Washington is scheduled to play until 2020-just look @ their schedule of Portland St, North Dakota, Sacramento St, Nevada, Utah St, and multiple games with Montana and Idaho. Too bad for Husky fans that Rutgers is as good as it gets until a 2020 visit by Michigan.

It looks like a case of the bland vs. the bland hoping to win 7 games and go to a minor bowl (now that we 40 of them) against another mid level team in a Christmas week game played in front of a half empty stadium.

G of F

Rutgers fans are not interested in Penn State, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State? They don’t want to travel to Seattle and watch a Washington team that has been a greater factor than Rutgers in the recent past? I would think a nine game B1G and Washington schedule is far better than anything Rutgers had in the Big East/American.

David

Exactly right. This B1G schedule is far and above any BE or American schedule could ever be. Plus, the four “flying” road trips to Seattle, Columbus, Lansing, and Minneapolis are each very reasonable flights for fans as to cost and accessibility. One could argue driving over I-78 to 76 to 70 to Columbus is a decent driving road trip… and the game at College Park, Maryland is an easy trip. Everything else is a home game. In the American, they’d be flying to places like Greenville, NC; Hattiesburg, MS, Tulsa, OK, etc.

Other than Ron Howard U., there is nothing wrong with this schedule. RU only controls 3 games AND the game with UW is a major challenge that RU should be complimented on. Plus, UW is a wonderful locale for RU fans, but they were just in Seattle this season.